of all the ancient architectural styles Greek architecture has proven to be the most enduring sure the Egyptians built some impressive structures and the Romans pulled off some amazing feats of engineering but you don't see us building pyramids anymore at least nowhere but Vegas and even Roman engineering Marvel's incorporated Greek form and style Greek architecture is more than just impressive it is timeless you don't have to dig in ruins to find Greek architecture it's all around you don't believe me go visit a civic structure City Hall a theater a bank a library a museum or if you're really ambitious head to DC or any Western capital for that matter what do you see columns columns columns columns columns in short if you want a westerner to think something is important put columns on it and not just any columns Greek columns Greek columns come in three varieties or orders Doric ionic and Corinthian all three share the same fluted column or drum where they differ is at the top what is called the capital of the column and what better place to learn about column capitals than at our nation's capital for of all the world's cities none is more indebted to classical Greek architecture than Washington DC let us start with the Lincoln Memorial look at those lovely columns these are columns of the Doric order the dis simplest of the Greek columns with a tapered disk supporting a square top now let's skip along to the Jefferson Memorial see those little Curly's at the top that tells us that these are columns of the ionic order let us end our tour at the Capitol building itself see that fancy filigree at the top of the columns sort of looks like a very symmetrical plant tried to grow at the top this is a column of the Corinthian order Corinthian columns come in many forms each more ornate than the last but they all share the same undeniably leafy quality there now you know the three orders of Greek columns and can impress or annoy your friends by pointing them out as you walk around town yet there was more to Greek architecture than just columns the Greeks built breathtaking temples as well as Treasuries stadiums and theaters your basic Greek temple is a roofed rectangle surrounded by columns that's me in front of a particularly old Greek temple in Corinth what sort of columns are those that's right Doric well done anyway these temples had a long angled roof peaking on the short ends to form a triangle called a pediment these shallow shelters were filled with life-size sculptures the roof rested upon an even plane called an entablature which spanned the gaps between columns to provide a solid surface as temple building developed architects added decorations to the entablature called meta peace separated from each other by three lines called a tri glyph further developments and bigger temples led to the addition of a second row of columns with a continuous decoration called a frieze running along the top inside the temple was a smaller enclosure called a mouse lined with its own columns this was the holiest place of the temple and usually housed an idol of the deity for whom the temple was built sometimes the Greeks would switch up column styles within the nose putting the hefty Doric on the outside and the delicate ionic or Corinthian within perhaps the most famous Greek temple is the Parthenon the Athenians began building this temple to Athena in 447 BCE and did not complete it until 15 years later like all Greek city-states the Athenians built their most impressive temples atop the highest point in town called the Acropolis literally High City the Parthenon had all the elements of a Greek temple the columns and entablature the pediment full of sculptures it even had the extra features meta peas depicting a battle between centaurs and Lapiths and the second row of columns with their accompanying frieze depicting a civic procession of Athenians in exquisite detail and within the nas recreated here by the fine folks at Nashville's Centennial Park big Idol of Athena on the inside yet these images cannot convey the overall effect of this building you simply have to be there standing among the columns you see the clever tricks of the eye Greek architects used to make the Parthenon tower imposingly you can see how they tapered the columns at the top to make the building seem taller a trick they called aunt asus as you examine more closely you notice that there is not a single right angle or straight line in the entire Parthenon yet the mind expects right angles it expects straight lines by taking advantage of the minds expectations the Greek architects could make the Parthenon appear even larger than it actually was the overall effect is one of airy grandeur Treasuries and stadiums pop up in important Panhellenic sites like Delphi and Olympia places where all the Greeks came to worship meet and compete stadiums provided a place to watch competitions these stadiums were not the massive round Affairs that we have today but rather tiered benches along the side of a long track called a Stade which is where we get the name stadium competitors would race down the Stade and back again here's me and some friends running the state at Delfy of course the Greeks would have done this naked but there were ladies present my friend Mel and I were actually arrested months later for running naked to the ancient Stadium of Olympia apparently the Greek police don't know a historical reproduction when they see one still they were good sports and dropped us off at our hotel though we never got a chance to recover our clothes for all I know they're still there part of the historical record another way city-states competed that these holy sites was by making lavish donations to the God which they housed in Treasuries being full of treasure Treasuries lacked the airy openness of Greek temples they were squat strong houses with opulent facades to declare the glory of the polis that built it and hint at the wealth stored with in the form of these Treasuries is often mimicked by today's banks yet perhaps the most distinctly Greek piece of architecture is the theater indeed an archaeologist can identify a Greek colony based on little else Greeks use their theaters for more than just entertainment theater was both religious and competitive and the Greeks took theater and music competitions as seriously as their sporting events if the Greeks had refined their engineering skills in their temples they mastered it in their theaters Greek theaters are an engineering marvel vast enough to seat thousands yet precisely designed to carry the slightest sound all the way to the back at the center of every Greek theater lays a small stone this is the sweet spot of the theater that's Mel from the Olympia debacle standing on the sweet spot of Epidaurus home of the largest and best-preserved of the Greek theaters from that spot even the slightest whisper resonates and spoken words ring like the voice of God I've been a singer all my life and I could not resist I stood upon that sweet spot and saying my face off and let me tell you no stage no hall no Cathedral can match the acoustic mastery of the Greek Theatre the Greeks left us an architectural legacy that in my humble opinion we have failed to improve upon in 3,000 years none have matched the Greek balance of elegance and power grace and gravity sure Roman arches are quite useful and their domes defied gravity medieval castles can be beautiful and Gothic cathedrals near take the breath away yet Roman architecture like the Romans themselves was always more practical than artistic castles are beautiful relics and we don't build many Gothic cathedrals these days steel and glass have replaced stone and steel and glass have allowed modern architects to construct Marvel's unimaginable grief yet the very vastness our skyscrapers does not lend itself to a human experience they are not built to a human scale you might spy them from afar gape upwards from their base or downward from their top but you cannot really grasp the entirety of a skyscraper it is simply too big so while it may seem that we have achieved with steel with the Greeks merely suggested with curves and angles Greek architecture by tailoring itself to human perception somehow contrives to be grander than the tallest tower